Month: January 2007

Reading time: 2 mins Movie info from IMDB Movie reviews from Metacritic Having cancelled our UGC/Cineworld monthly passes towards the end of last year, we’ve kind of fallen away from watching movies at all. However we are now getting to the point that the movies coming on TV (via Sky Movies) are ones that we missed at the cinema, starting with this one. It’s the story of the final flight that was hijacked on September 11, 2001, the flight that didn’t hit the intended target. The passengers decided to fight back, and the plane crashed in a field. No-one survived. Putting aside certain issues – at what point do movies like this cross the boundary from ‘faction’ into documentary – it’s a hugely engrossing …

Reading time: 1 min The psychology of colour Are we preconditioned to pick out the six colours on a Rubik’s cube whatever tongue it is taught to think in. Or can you chop the spectrum into categories anywhere along its length and rely on the language an individual learns from his parents to explain where that chopping takes place.

Reading time: 3 mins I’m a terrible loser. Awful. No matter how I might try and disguise it, I hate losing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m resigned to the fact that there are people out there who are smarter, faster, stronger, fitter, and lots of other “-ers” than I, and that’s fine. But if I think I should win something, and I don’t? Ohh my, not a pretty sight. Hissy fit central. Of course I do use this mentality for my own benefit, particularly since I took up jogging. It’s not always applicable of course, especially as it’s not a competitive jogging group (e.g. it’s not a running club), with the focus very much on the team ethic. But when it comes to the …

Reading time: 1 min Quickly Tiling Windows in XP “With the first window open, press and hold Ctrl, then right-click the second window’s button in the taskbar and choose Tile Horizontally or Tile Vertically in the pop-up that appears.” You really do learn something new everyday, thank you LifeHacker!

Reading time: 3 mins Deary me. Such a silly little TV programme causing such a stir. Let me just mount my “I haven’t been watching it this time” high horse, and we can get started. Firstly I’ll state that I’m not interested in who said what, as my firm belief is that any kind of racist statement is a deplorable outcome of ill-education. Secondly I’ll state that whilst I haven’t really been following this, it does seem to be very much a “reap what you sow” kind of situation, with the sickening implication that Channel 4 are probably, privately, pleased with the increased viewing figures and profile for the show. Thirdly, it would seem that the main conflict isn’t race but intellect*. After an …

Reading time: 2 mins So, there are a few things around here that are still a bit.. erm.. broken. In the spirit of transparency, and in case I’ve missed anything that you’ve spotted, here is everything that will be fixed or changed in the coming week, fortnight.. month? Archive page – this will be slightly different from the previous one, depending on what plugins I can get to work Comments – still some work to do on these, I’d like to be able to highlight MY comments, and I still think it needs some tidying up. I’d definitely like to “pretty” up the comment form itself. The “First Visit/Previous Posts” area still isn’t quite how I want it. Might need to span both columns …

Reading time: 1 min “I used to think that prizes were demeaning and divisive, until I got one, and now they seem sort of meaningful and real.” Bill Nighy, best actor in a TV mini-series for Gideon’s Daughter